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Engineer plans to sell compressed-air car in India within a year

Posted at 4:44 PM on 13 Feb 2008

Could folks in India be driving a car that runs on compressed air within a year? French engineer Guy Negre says it will be so. Tata Motors has backed his invention: a five-seater called the OneCAT, which would produce no emissions and cost around $5,000. "The first buyers [of the car] will be people who care about the environment," says Negre, who hopes that investors around the world will set up factories to build the car using local materials, cutting down on shipping emissions. "I really hope he succeeds," says Terry Spall from the U.K. Institution of Mechanical Engineers. "It is a really brave experiment in producing a sustainable car."

source: BBC News

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Comments: (5 comments)

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Thing to note

It's not really a compressed air car.

It's a compressed air hybrid.

You take compressed air, and then heat it with a liquid fuel, and then that causes the air to expand, which then drives the engine.

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 8:03 PM on 13 Feb 2008

Just one more year

This guy has been promising an air powered car for years. He's still no closer to production than he used to be.

From what I understand it is an inefficient energy conversion and the cars are underpowered.

If you continue to do what you've always done you'll continue to get what you've always got. - Yogi Berra

by Matt at 5:04 AM on 14 Feb 2008

where does the compressed air come from?

Compressed air is just a carrier of energy, just like gasoline, electricity or hydrogen. That carrier has to come from someplace, compressed air isn't in any quantity in nature last time I checked.
The efficiency of compressed air is maybe 30 percent from it's input to output if I remember right. That's better than car/vehicle engines which are somewhere around 30 to 15 percent generally. Power from a battery and electricity can be 70 percent, which would be the way to go.

by trock at 7:13 AM on 14 Feb 2008

Our Kind of Guy

I think that it is great to explore any and all ideas related to improving our technology. In the case of the air car though producing compressed air requires energy from some source to run the compressor. If that energy is produced from environmentally friendly sources such as wind and solar, then fine. The same applies to electric vehicles, which I think are a great idea for urban transportation.

Mike Johnston

by enki at 8:03 AM on 14 Feb 2008

If Negre truly is Grist's kind of guy,

that's an indictment of Grist.

As Matt says, this is a zombie story. In the recycling spirit, my comment from 43 months ago.

How will the car really gain nuclear cachet?

by GRLCowan at 11:07 AM on 14 Feb 2008

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